The Malik Report

"There were definitely some doubts," Coreau said. "But one thing my mother always told me -- I think it's very true -- it's not how many times we succeed. It's how many times we fail and get up and keep moving forward. So that was a year of some mistakes and some failures. I did my best to learn from them."...

"With the magnitude of the opportunity, it's fairly easy [to keep a narrow focus]," Coreau said. "This is the level that everyone works to get to."

Miller, 32, has recorded 106 points (56-50-106) in 483 games with the Red Wings since joining the team during the 2009-10 campaign. The 6-foot-2, 180-lb., forward has totaled 121 points (62-59-121) and 132 penalty minutes in 550 career NHL games with the Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Miller has also tallied 13 points (6-7-13) in 60 Stanley Cup playoff games, and helped the Anaheim Ducks to a Stanley Cup championship in 2007, skating in three games as a first-year pro. Miller has logged 34 games with the Red Wings this season, recording six points (5-1-6) and 14 penalty minutes.

Originally drafted by Anaheim in the sixth round (186th overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, Miller skated in 163 American Hockey League games from 2005-09 for the Portland Pirates and Iowa Chops, notching 110 points (55-55-110) and 73 penalty minutes. Born in Dover, N.J., but raised in East Lansing, Mich., Miller spent three seasons with the Michigan State Spartans from 2003-06 and recorded 86 points (39-47-86) in 125 games. He was named the CCHA’s Best Defensive Forward and won the CCHA Humanitarian Award in 2006. He also skated for the Braehead Clan in the United Kingdom’s top professional league in 2012-13, totaling 30 points (15-15-30) in 25 games.

added 5:07pm,

Wings GM Ken Holland says Drew Miller will be recalled from Grand Rapids. He just cleared waivers at noon.

“This All-Star break can’t come quick enough,” Ott said of the weekend ahead. “Try to collect some points in the last couple games here and maybe take a little bit of break, reset everybody here and, hopefully, come back a strong, healthy team.

“I don’t care what team you are in the league, if you lose some of guys that we lost in here, it would really damper a team. That’s kind of the story of this season. The underachieving part is, obviously, due to injury, I think, more than anything. Now you’re seeing a team that continues to get healthier and a team that continues to rise up.”

Ouellet played 21:17, second-most among the defensemen to Danny DeKeyser’s 23:19. Jensen played 15:43, a bit less than Kronwall’s 16:14, but during two more shifts than the veteran.

For a team challenged in their fifth season of a self-proclaimed “rebuild on the fly” to spend less time in their zone, leave it more adroitly and boost a power play lagging for two seasons, the corps of defensemen remains the major cause for concern.

Mike Green has helped solidify it with improved play this season, including eight goals and 14 assists in 39 games.

But short of a blockbuster trade before the deadline, Feb. 28, to acquire the much-in-demand Kevin Shattenkirk, from the Blues, the only improvement available on the back end might be from new players, who ripened — maybe even over-ripened — in Grand Rapids.

And the events of Sunday provided definitive evidence the Wings now intend to, in the vernacular of the game, “play the kids back there.”

Before J.T. Miller's overtime goal gave the Rangers a 1-0 win Sunday afternoon, they engaged in 60 minutes of drudgery with the Red Wings, a game which Rangers players admitted was "ugly" and "boring" for spectators, and Alain Vigneault pinned a lot of the utterly dull hockey to the playing surface, ripping the ice conditions at Joe Louis Arena.

"I know the ice was the same for both teams, but the quality of the ice today was just horrendous," Vigneault said. "When you can't put two passes together because the puck was bouncing all over the place, it makes it very hard on both players who have some skill, and it makes it hard to put that skill on display. It took five or six minutes each period for the ice to be horrible, and I think that had a lot to do with the show that we saw on the ice today."

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.